Tag: Western Australia

  • Australian Wildflower Festival

    It’s spring in Western Australia and that means wildflower season. The Kings Park Festival is in full swing. If you can’t visit the Botanic Gardens in person, take a look at the site. Much of Western Australia’s flora is unique, so chances are you’ll see something new — and the art is pretty good, too…

  • West Australian Gold Rush

    Gold, gold, gold — who else is a Terry Pratchett fan and recognises the famous Discworld Dwarf song? Gold, gold, gold. As Terry says, dwarves don’t love gold, they just say they do to get it into bed. Hmm. Sometimes I’m easily distracted. This is meant to be a history — not a fantasy novel…

  • Secession — Western Australia

    Does Western Australia belong in Australia? We almost didn’t join the federation of Australian colonies way back when. There was talk of going it alone. But we were bribed (east coasters wanted our gold!). They promised us a transcontinental railway, and we fell for it. Well, no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. The…

  • Kings Park

    Kings Park is a nature reserve and botanic garden nestled in the heart of Western Australia’s capital city, Perth. It’s on a hill. The story goes that Governor Stirling, who was in charge of the British settlement here, sited Perth behind the bulk of Mount Eliza (named for his wife) so it would be safe…

  • Swan River

      In the nineteenth century, Australia didn’t exist as a nation, but as a number of British colonies. In 1901 we became a nation, and the Swan River Colony became Western Australia. I have a sneaking suspicion that if six years earlier gold hadn’t been discovered near Kalgoorlie, the rest of Australia wouldn’t have cared…